Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, (18 May 1872 – 2 February 1970) was a British philosopher, logician, mathematician, historian, writer, social critic and political activist. At various points in his life he considered himself a liberal, a socialist, and a pacifist, but he also admitted that he had never been any of these in any profound sense. He was born in Monmouthshire, into one of the most prominent aristocratic families in Britain. In the early 20th century, Russell led the British "revolt against idealism". He is considered one of the founders of analytic philosophy along with his predecessor Gottlob Frege, colleague G. E. Moore, and his protégé Ludwig Wittgenstein. He is widely held to be one of the 20th century's premier logicians.With A. N. Whitehead he wrote Principia Mathematica, an attempt to create a logical basis for mathematics. His philosophical essay "On Denoting" has been considered a "paradigm of philosophy". His work has had a considerable influence on logic, mathematics, set theory, linguistics, artificial intelligence, cognitive science, computer science (see type theory and type system), and philosophy, especially philosophy of language, epistemology, and metaphysics. Russell was a prominent anti-war activist; he championed anti-imperialism and went to prison for his pacifism during World War I. Later, he campaigned against Adolf Hitler, then criticized Stalinist totalitarianism, attacked the involvement of the United States in the Vietnam War, and was an outspoken proponent of nuclear disarmament. In 1950 Russell was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature "in recognition of his varied and significant writings in which he champions humanitarian ideals and freedom of thought". Tossup Questions # This thinker's essay "On the Nature of Acquaintance" cites William James' proposal that substances are not intrinsically physical or mental, but differ only in their context. This champion of neutral monism was criticized in a paper by P.F. Strawson that posits sentences like "the table is covered with books." He criticized Meinong's theory of objects and Frege's idea of sense and reference in his essay "On Denoting." Godel's incompleteness theorem dealt a blow to this man's attempt to formulate axioms from which all mathematical truths could be derived. For 10 points, name this philosopher who wrote Principia Mathematica with Alfred Whitehead. # This thinker argued that logical statements starting with an existential quantifier underlie "definite descriptions" such as "Scott is the author of Waverley." This man's argument against putting the burden of proof on skeptics concerned a hypothetical claim that the sun was orbited by a teapot. This author of "On Denoting" lectured against organized religion in "Why I Am Not a Christian." For 10 points, name this British analytic philosopher and anti-nuclear advocate who worked with Alfred North Whitehead to axiomatize arithmetic in Principia Mathematica. # This writer distinguished between learning through description and learning through acquaintance in a work that introduces the Cartesian method of doubt with the example of a table. This man attempted to solve the problem of negative existentials in a work that claimed that "Aristotle" was not a name but a description. That work by this man also criticized Meinong and rejects the distinction between propositions and truth values proposed in (*) Frege's On Sense and Reference. This author of The Problems of Philosophy and "On Denoting" introduced his namesake paradox in naive set theory in a work that attempted to explain mathematics with axiomatic logic. For 10 points, name this British philosopher who co-wrote Principia Mathematica with Alfred North Whitehead. # One paper by this author rejects Meinong's theory that all grammatically correct phrases stand for real objects. This philosopher examined the truth value of statements about non-existent objects with the sentence "The present King of France is bald." This philosopher introduced the "theory of types" to solve the problem of whether the set of all sets that are not members of themselves contains itself, a paradox named for this author of On Denoting. With an older philosopher, he wrote a work that attempted to derive mathematics using symbolic logic. For 10 points, name this English philosopher who collaborated with Alfred North Whitehead on Principia Mathematica. # This author discussed an inexperienced girl, who marries a syphilitic man and is told by the church that she cannot get divorced or use birth control, in a work that claims that religion is based on fear. In another work, he discussed two meanings of the phrase "the present King of France is not bald." The paradox of this author of "On Denoting" asks whether the set of all sets that do not contain themselves contains itself. For 10 points, name this author of "Why I Am Not a Christian" who collaborated with Alfred North Whitehead on Principia Mathematica.